In The Begining

I was diagnosed with Adenocarcinoma of the esophagus on August 21, 2007, a very potentially deadly (and extremely rare) form of cancer that effects (on average) people in their 50’s-70’s. I am 28 years old. They say that this type of cancer is mostly contributed to cigarette smoking and chronic alcohol exposure (for Squamous Cell) or GERD (for adenocarcinoma). Truth be told, I had smoked a total of less than 5 cigarettes in my whole life thus far and only drank alcohol during college – and even then it was only for a social matter (minus a couple of days of extreme drinking added together; it is almost impossible to graduate from a university without this prerequisite – especially for a guy). I also have no recollection of having any serious/constant acid reflex. I had a regular work-out routine for about 5 years (of which the last two years were 5-day-a-week 1-2 hour sessions at the gym). I had lost about 25 pounds during that time and was the hardest goal I had ever achieved; I really wanted a lean yet ‘”cut” body. I mostly got the lean part down and still working on the muscles. I eat relatively healthy (I think) – the last two years involved mostly oatmeal and orange juice for breakfast – to which my co-workers can easily testify to. So how does a person like me get this type of cancer? Unfortunately, medical science is not yet advanced enough to answer this question definitively. I work so hard to maintain a healthy body, but there are just some things you or anybody else can control.

I guess my story really begins when my symptoms started appearing. I would have to say it started late June when I started seeing my Primary Care Physician, Dr. Houston. The insurance I have at work is a PPO which allows us to see any doctor that we like. Believe it or not, I was originally more concerned about my lungs so I went to see a Pulmonologist. On the very first visit we discussed a lot of different concerns that I had – mostly focused on my lungs, maybe about 5 minutes were only devoted to my difficulty burping. So the ball started rolling from there – in a few days after that office visit I was to have a chest x-ray, breathing tests, and blood and urine tests. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of tests performed on me – I don’t remember any other time in my life where I had that many tests. The results of all of this were considered “almost normal”, this is, for a person living in the heavily polluted Los Angeles area (my lung capacity was not considered normal for the average person). My chest x-ray was fine, I was extremely relieved. But I was a bit disappointed – I was expecting myself to be above average since I do cardio workouts 5 days a week. But oh well, Dr. Houston told me that it wasn’t THAT bad – that I probably wouldn’t notice the decreased lung capacity unless I was an Olympic gymnast or professional runner. My concern about my burping was all but lost in the mayhem of tests.

On my return appointment with Dr. Houston, I opened up more to my problem of being unable to burp properly (note that I did not say ‘problem swallowing’). We discussed exactly what I was feeling and where I thought the problem could be. I believed at that time that it was in my throat and somehow constricted my ability to burp. I’m glad he listened, even though it wasn’t his specialty (and I didn’t feel like seeing another doctor since he’s that good). He ordered a swallowing evaluation test for me with a speech therapist. This procedure involves me swallowing “radioactive” food while the doctors scan me using x-rays while I swallow. One of the doctors (who I don’t know his name), asked me why I was having this procedure done and also wanted to know my age. I told him it was because of my difficulty burping and that I was 28. He told me that it was highly unusual for a person like me taking this test – that I should be in tip-top shape. The test was done with me swallowing some tasty sweet smoothie and some crackers with some cream on top. It tasted yummy – too bad it was radioactive. The test went well with no complications – it couldn’t have gone any more perfect than that. I felt no problems with my burping to which I felt really bummed about since I now look like I was just making the whole thing up to all those doctors. But I knew something was up with me and wanted to know what it was.

On my next appointment with Dr. Houston, we went through the results of my swallowing eval. Since the test results appeared clean, I ended up changing my story and told him that whatever it was that it might be in my stomach. I guess he believed me and suggested that I should get an abdominal ultrasound and then an endoscopy – in which a scope would be placed down my throat. I agreed; it was a full-proof way of finding out what was happening inside of me.